After last night’s MLBPA rejection of the MLB’s proposal to start the baseball season, we will still have baseball in 2020.

Major League Baseball has moved forward and instituted a 60-game season that will begin in 8 days with Spring Training II. This is not happening in good faith. The negotiations failed miserably. The season will start based on Rob Manfred’s commissioner power to institute a season regardless of the MLBPA’s decision.

Major League Baseball has asked the MLB Players Association if players can report to camp by July 1 and will sign off on health-and-safety protocols. The union has been asked to respond by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Per Jeff Passan of ESPN, that decision is likely to happen:

Based on conversations with a number of players, there is a strong expectation the MLBPA will vote yes on MLB’s proposed July 1 report date, codify the health-and-safety protocol (with some slight tweaks) and lock in a 60-game season that begins around July 24, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 23, 2020

More from Passan’s ESPN Article:

By choosing a season of 60 games, the league will pack in about as many games as it can through Sept. 27, the league’s self-imposed cutoff for the regular season.

Additionally, the 60-game season could serve as a buffer against a grievance by the MLBPA, which in the case of a potential implementation has been expected to charge that the league did not fulfill its duty to complete as full a season as possible. The league could file a grievance against the union as well.

Multiple players told ESPN that they expect to agree to the league’s call to report by July 1 and to its health-and-safety protocol, with executive subcommittee member Andrew Miller telling ESPN, “We are ready to get back on the field.”

If the players do, it would end a tortuous path to a return-to-play agreement in a typically confusing way: with the players rejecting a proposal, only to have one of the same length implemented.

I am personally excited to see a 60 game season. Everything counts. Teams will need to come out hot and stay hot for the entire season. The fate of this happening, relies on the MLBPA agreeing to terms by 5pm today.

We’re super close. Hang in there.